The Ayn and Only

Cult-empress or great thinker?

Katherine Mangu-Ward | November 13, 2009

(Page 2 of 2)

Rand was always confident in her own talent, predicting sales of 100,000 copies for The Fountainhead. As it turns out, however, she was far too modest. Yet her confidence was also the reason she was shocked and hurt by the pointed way academic reviewers failed to welcome her works. Heller is particularly adept at capturing the novelist's heartache as the negative reviews poured in, and her elation at discovering the book's slow ascent to bestsellerdom.

The months after she finished The Fountainhead were probably the lowest ebb of Rand's elitism. Her books are about supermen, heroes operating on an epic scale. But in The Fountainhead, she makes a place for the common man. In a climactic courtroom scene in which the hero, architect Howard Roark, makes a speech defending his decision to blow up a housing project, the jury consists of "two executives of industrial concerns, two engineers, a mathematician, a truck driver, a bricklayer, an electrician, a gardener, and three factory workers." The jury hears Roark's explanation of why he blew up the project--his vision had been corrupted, and it was his right as creator to also be destroyer--and acquits him. This particular crowd sounds like the folks you might see at a Tea Party--and the post-Fountainhead Rand might have felt at home among them after being rejected by the leftist academic elite and the gatekeepers of intellectual conservatism.

Rand wasn't alone in feeling alienated by both the left and right. The American libertarian movement of the 1960s and '70s was made possible, in part, by a generation of Rand readers looking for an individualist alternative on the American political scene. But she didn't take a shine to her strange capitalist hippie offspring, and soon returned to her previous skepticism about politics, equally scorning the unphilosophical and irrational elements of the libertarian and conservative movements.

By the 1957 publication of her second novel, Atlas Shrugged, Rand was showing evidence of her pessimism about the state and the masses. She was never one to say that commercial success indicated true worth: Her heroes are often in financial trouble because the world fails to recognize what they are offering as superior. Wealth is just as often a signifier of corruption as achievement. Financial success came to Rand herself late in life, thanks in part to her decision to build an alternative delivery system for her philosophy, outside the usual worlds of academia and politics. Rand authorized her sometime lover Nathaniel Branden to establish a newsletter-publishing operation and lecture series, which proved decently profitable and supplied Rand with a steady stream of converts. After their falling-out--Branden was keeping a girl on the side--Rand passed the mantle to another follower, who has been overzealous in his protection of her papers and name.

And yet--despite critical PR blunders and excoriation from both sides of the political aisle--Ayn Rand endures. People keep buying her books and, perhaps more important, giving them to each other. Republican congressmen Paul Ryan (Wis.) and John Campbell (Calif.) give out copies of Atlas Shrugged to their staff. So does the head of BB&T bank, John Allison. Talk about a film version of Atlas has gotten louder in recent months. The same force that made Rand a cult phenomenon in her own time still sends people into the streets with Atlas Shrugged banners 50 years later. Her strange blend of populism and elitism continues to leave its mark in the right-wing world, like it or not.

Katherine Mangu-Ward is a senior editor at Reason. This article originally appeared in The Weekly Standard on November 9, 2009.

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|11.13.09 @ 4:46PM|#

Can everyone please take Ayn Rand's dick out of their mouths for just one second. Please? If I see one more article on her I may puke.

Lew Rockwell|11.13.09 @ 5:35PM|#

Drink?

GILMORE|11.13.09 @ 7:23PM|#

Already puked; now on second round of gastronomic suffering

|11.13.09 @ 5:05PM|#

Here's a quote from Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged:

“I quit when medicine was placed under State control, some years ago,” said Dr. Hendricks. “Do you know what it takes to perform a brain operation? Do you know the kind of skill it demands, and the years of passionate, merciless, excruciating devotion that go to acquire that skill? THAT was what I would not place at the disposal of men whose sole qualification to rule me was their capacity to spout the fraudulent generalities that got them elected to the privilege of enforcing their wishes. I would not let them dictate the purpose for which my years of study had been spent, or the conditions of my work, or my choice of patients, or the amount of my reward. I observed that in all the discussion that preceded the enslavement of medicine, men discussed everything – except the desires of doctors. I have often wondered at the smugness with which people answer their right to control my work, to force my will, to violate my conscience, to stifle my mind – yet what is it that they expect to depend on, when they lie on an operating table under my hands? Let them discover, in their operating rooms and hospital wards that it is not safe to place their lives in the hands of doctors whose livelihood they have throttled. It is not safe, if he is the sort of doctor who resents it – and still less safe if he is the sort who does not.”

Does that sound at all similar to the health care reform discussion? Sound anything similar to government health bureaucrats? Does it not give you a hint as to what people are currently experiencing in Canada, UK, France, etc.?

Naaa ... theres no connection at all. Its just words, just her opinion.

|11.13.09 @ 8:53PM|#

Are you posting this from an undisclosed location in Colorado?

in theory|11.13.09 @ 11:45PM|#

all that sounds really good in theory. But I wonder then why it is that the great majority of people in those countries are pleased with their healthcare.

|11.14.09 @ 1:53AM|#

The great majority of people in the US are pleased with their health care. Why are they wrong, statist?

in theory|11.14.09 @ 6:20AM|#

Who is more pleased with their health care - Americans or Canadians, Europeans, and Australians?

I doubt that the great majority of Americans are pleased with their health care. Btw, you referred to me as a statist; is your argument then that the U.S. system is *not* a statist system?
In any case, you mistook my meaning. I actually would prefer a non-state system, something like we had before the HMOs ruined everything and the system became overly-regulated. My point was that while despite the Randian rhetoric, it's not clear to me that people are suffering more in systems that are even more (or just differently) regulated than they are in America. In fact, people might be fairing better, compared to what we have now here in the U.S.. So, that particular argument does not strike me as a good one.
Carry on though with thoughtless, mantric chanting of the creed.

Sam Grove|11.15.09 @ 3:00PM|#

Lots of people are satisfied that they don't have to exert themselves to think about things like health care. They don't even worry that that might be better off otherwise.

Dean Striker|11.17.09 @ 2:06PM|#

Sam Grove, I say you are correct, but only because most people find it easier to slide than to Reason.

|11.17.09 @ 1:31AM|#

And here, in contrast, is what the English Language is supposed to sound like:

"The novel My Laura was begun very soon after the end of the love affair it depicts, was completed in one year, published three months later, and promptly torn apart by a book reviewer in a leading newspaper. It grimly survived and to the accompaniment of muffled grunts on the part of the librarious fates, its invisible hoisters, it wriggled up to the top of the bestsellers’ list then started to slip, but stopped at a midway step in the vertical ice. A dozen Sundays passed and one had the impression that Laura had somehow got stuck on the seventh step (the last respectable one) or that, perhaps, some anonymous agent working for the author was buying up every week just enough copies to keep Laura there; but a day came when the climber above lost his foothold and toppled down dislodging number seven and eight and nine in a general collapse beyond any hope of recovery. "

http://entertainment.timesonli.....906456.ece

Written by another Russian expat and a truly great writer.

|11.17.09 @ 7:57PM|#

Very telling quote! It is quite scary to see the similarities between this quote in Atlas Shrugged and what is going on with the socialisation of our government and in particular our medical care in this country. Makes me want to pick up this book and re-read it as well as the Fountainhead which I have yet to read.

Tholan|11.13.09 @ 5:09PM|#

Katherine, your offerings had diminished for sometime and I was saddened. But now they have returned and I am overjoyed. Keep up the good work. It is great to have you back.
- JRT

|11.13.09 @ 5:21PM|#

I like it. Ayn exposed altruism for what it is...a sacrificial oblation to those crippled by superstition on the one hand and statism(both socialism and fascism)on the other. Critics usually resort to feral ad hominem and ad caplandum statements leaving many to wonder if they are either unread or just plain illiterate. As a 63 year-young person and having just re-read "Atlas Shrugged" for the 3rd time, I must state I'm as inspired by her intellect and authorship as I was after my initial reading.

|11.13.09 @ 5:22PM|#

monolith|11.13.09 @ 5:36PM|#

I think your definition of altruism
differs from that usually found in the dictionary.

Good article though.

Barack Obama|11.13.09 @ 5:46PM|#

Thank you, George Stephanopoulos.

|11.13.09 @ 5:59PM|#

I think Ayn would fit right into that crowd whining that we aren't doing enough to exterminate the subhuman Muslims. "Help! They're all among us!"

|11.14.09 @ 1:55AM|#

Brandybuck, you are a dope.

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Randy Haddock|11.13.09 @ 9:06PM|#

Will Reason Magazine soon change its name to Ayn Rand magazine?

Suki|11.14.09 @ 12:07AM|#

What is that Dianetics ad doing in my right margin?

Fiscal Meth|11.14.09 @ 12:25AM|#

Yeah, I know Randy! It's almost like they're doing a ten-part special on her.

Pingback| 11.14.09 @ 12:28AM

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smartass sob|11.14.09 @ 1:45AM|#

She denounced Christianity as "the perfect kindergarten for communism."

Ha! I love that quote. There is a great deal of truth in what she said.

RMT|11.14.09 @ 2:28AM|#

"After their falling-out--Branden was keeping a girl on the side"
Their falling-out was because he was freaking crazy and not because he had a girl, there are years between one and the other.

RMT|11.14.09 @ 2:30AM|#

oh... besides that, I liked the article actually, best Reason had on Rand in some time

Pingback| 11.14.09 @ 4:31AM

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ed|11.14.09 @ 8:55AM|#

If William F. Buckley Jr. is the father of the modern conservative movement,
Ayn Rand is the worldly aunt

And KMW is the mongoloid idiot. Rand was never a "conservative." Not even close.

John Galt|11.18.09 @ 2:43AM|#

click this link to find out what Ayn Rand thought of conservatism

http://aynrandlexicon.com/lexi.....tives.html

Pedantula|11.14.09 @ 12:14PM|#

I wonder if the Left has some equivalent for these internal quarrels?

If I go to Rachel Maddow's site right now, will I find a furious debate over who forged the true path to modern statism?

Will someone tell me not to waste my time reading Rousseau because he had a bizarre sex life and tried to build a cult around himself? Will they assure me that genuine liberal sophisticates prefer to take their cues from Amartya Sen?

Funny that it's we who now worry about how to mark the difference between Mensheviks and genuine radicals...

Beezard|11.14.09 @ 2:27PM|#

The only feasible solution to these internal political disagreements is to declare an Emperor of Freedom.

Of course, I graciously except your nomination, and here is a list of people I think should be voluntarily relocated to rape-um-liberty camps near the Mexican border.

Patrick|11.14.09 @ 3:15PM|#

Actually, if you go to the really leftist places, you will find people arguing about which ultra-leftist with funny facial hair had the most straightforward way of exterminating individual rights and prosperity. Think about Trotsky, they still fight about that..

Put in perspective, Rachel Maddow seems to be to the left what Sean Hannity is to the right. I doubt you'd find much debate there either.

Pedantula|11.14.09 @ 8:27PM|#

Good point - they do fight about Trotsky, or at least the really academic types do.

Though I challenge you to find any Left equivalent to the more outrageous attacks (found here) on Rand's personal appearance and sexuality, etc.

They save that pap for their enemies. You won't hear them saying "Bukharin was wrong about collective agriculture, and he looked like a bitch, too."

flibbertygibbet|11.14.09 @ 1:26PM|#

"Cult Empress or Great Thinker?"

Ah, the use of the ever-popular false dichotomy. It warms the cockles of my heart, it does, it does. The bread and butter of mediocre term-paper theses everywhere. Because we all know that false dichotomies are the cause of-- and solution to-- all of life's problems.

But I shall select answer C: "What is Philosophical Perv and Bad Writer?" for the win, Alex. (With as much hackneyed prose and pop-cultural winks and nudges as I am able to manage ...)

John Galt|11.18.09 @ 2:39AM|#

You are substituting an ad-hominem argument fallacy for a rational critique of Ayn Rand's writing. In the end, people dismiss comments like these as irrelevant due to lack of substance

Big Daddy|11.14.09 @ 1:35PM|#

All the philosophy I ever needed, I got from Bioshock.

Tom Anderson|11.14.09 @ 4:08PM|#

Thank you, Robert Taylor, for the delightful characterization: "Critics usually resort to feral ad hominem and ad caplandum [sic] statements." I hadn't seen the Latin in the second adjective and looked it up. Appears the correct spelling is: ad captandum, meaning meretricious attempts to win popular favor, a unsound specious argument, a kind of seductive casuistry.

I like it, especially with the word "feral" as a modifier. BTW, I also read Atlas not too many years ago for the third or fourth time, and each time find myself startled by the insight derived from consistently applying a valid principle to the facts of reality.

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aspushkin|11.15.09 @ 5:48PM|#

Don't those liberal elitist philosophers see how brilliant Ms. Rand was for endlessly and stridently repeating "A is A?"

smartass sob|11.16.09 @ 1:40AM|#

No, they don't even realize how brilliant Aristotle was for originating it.

John Galt|11.18.09 @ 2:41AM|#

I wasn't aware that liberal elitism was elevated to the level of 'philosophy'

Donna Stone|11.15.09 @ 6:24PM|#

I've yet to find Kinky Sex in Rand's novels. If I were Dagney Taggert I would have kept both Reardon and Gault, and hooked back up with Fransisco. And when I wanted kinky I would have invited the Wyatt oil guy to join us.

As for the actual sex life of Miss Rand; why do people keep discussing it? Ick!

I cannot think of a single real person whose sex life I'm interested in. (other than the person I share a sex life with)

Pingback| 11.15.09 @ 8:54PM

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MIZUNA|11.16.09 @ 8:15PM|#

Call me a John Steinbeck Libertarian, but the laissez-faire charcters of CANNERY ROW planted the seed for the do-as-thou-wilst characters of Ayn Rand.

John Galt|11.18.09 @ 2:35AM|#

The only "poitical aspiration" Ayn Rand ever had, was to live in a world where men could be free to produce and consume.

|12.6.09 @ 8:06PM|#

Anyone who takes a look at the demography of Europe, its massive debt (worse than ours as % of GDP), its unfunded liabilities, and their shrinking budgets, they would realize that the statist health care systems of Europe, Canada and Japan could not last another 20 years. People are happy because they receive "free" care, they do not understand that just because they aren't paying for it out-of-pocket doesn't mean they're not paying.

Pingback| 2.2.10 @ 10:20PM

Happy 105th Birthday, Ayn Rand! - www.hostzi.com - deepWeb links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:

…anyway) why not enjoy a sampling from Reason’s Rand archive in her honor?: ShesBack! Ayn Rand is bigger than ever. But are her new fans radical enough for capitalism? by Brian Doherty The Ayn and Only: Cult-empress or great thinker? by Katherine Mangu-Ward WillEveryone Please Stop Freaking Out Over Ayn Rand?!? by Peter Bagge Readyfor Her Close-Up: Re-examining Ayn Rands place in American intellectual and cultural life…

abercrombie milano|5.27.10 @ 5:25AM|#

nike shox|8.11.11 @ 2:57AM|#

is good

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